Since the big boys like Westjet, C3 and Air Transat are intent on staying out of regional markets I think many of Canada's smaller communities would profit greatly from a dedicated low-cost all regional carrier sort of like Time Air. A fleet of torboprops and perhaps small RJ's flying people at low cost could seriously cripple ACR who is charging outrages fares in places that have no competition from other airlines.

Maybe someone could do something useful with the 328 Jet, which seems on the surface to have been designed to fill the gap between the Dash 8 and the CRJ, the former being slow (and thus less efficient in terms of the maximum number of flights that can be fit into one day) and the latter being designed for longer routes.

Anyone have any opinions on what type of aircraft would be most suitable for short, thin routes?

Do you have a printed copy of an AC timetable? Have a look at the regional networks on one map (they used to print this). Takes like 8 stops get from YHZ to YVR...shows the unfeasibility of a national regional carrier that doesn't feed a major.

"low-cost" and "regional" are somewhat contradictory... the seat-mile costs tend to go up with smaller aircraft, and small markets can't spread fixed costs over as many passengers. Also, shorter hauls have a higher fuel consumption per mile, and give less productive flying time per day. This is why regional fares don't seem to correlate to transcons, and this is also why WJ's success in some of those markets is interesting - but one must admit that WJ is pretty careful about which markets it chooses.